How to Draw a Bezier Curve in UIView

Question

I need to make a curve in a UIView as displayed in the image below. I have to use UIBezierPath. Kindly help me out with this.

I also want to know how to flip the curve from the horizontal axis, so that I have the arc at the top and the base at the bottom.

Answer 1

To draw a solid filled in arc within a particular CGSize, you can define a UIBezierPath like so:

- (UIBezierPath * _Nullable)pathOfArcWithinSize:(CGSize)size {
    if (size.width == 0 || size.height <= 0) return nil;

    CGFloat theta = M_PI - atan2(size.width / 2.0, size.height) * 2.0;
    CGFloat radius = self.bounds.size.height / (1.0 - cos(theta));

    UIBezierPath *path = [UIBezierPath bezierPath];
    [path moveToPoint:CGPointMake(0, 0)];
    [path addArcWithCenter:CGPointMake(size.width / 2.0, -radius + size.height) radius:radius startAngle:M_PI_2 + theta endAngle:M_PI_2 - theta clockwise:false];
    [path closePath];

    return path;
}

That's just using a little trigonometry to calculate the angle and radius for the arc given the height and width of the view.

Once you have that, you can either construct a CAShapeLayer using that path and then add that as a sublayer of a UIView or you can implement your own drawRect method that calls fill on that path. (Or, given that you've tagged this with core-graphics, you could also do a custom drawRect with CoreGraphics calls, but I'm not sure why you'd do that.)

For example, you could define a CurvedView class that uses CAShapeLayer:

//  CurvedView.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

IB_DESIGNABLE
@interface CurvedView : UIView

@property (nonatomic, strong) IBInspectable UIColor *fillColor;

@end

And

//  CurvedView.m

#import "CurvedView.h"

@interface CurvedView ()
@property (nonatomic, weak) CAShapeLayer *curvedLayer;
@end

@implementation CurvedView

- (instancetype)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame {
    self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
    if (self) {
        [self configureView];
    }
    return self;
}

- (instancetype _Nullable)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)coder {
    self = [super initWithCoder:coder];
    if (self) {
        [self configureView];
    }
    return self;
}

- (void)configureView {
    self.fillColor = [UIColor whiteColor];

    CAShapeLayer *layer = [CAShapeLayer layer];
    layer.fillColor = self.fillColor.CGColor;
    layer.strokeColor = [UIColor clearColor].CGColor;
    layer.lineWidth = 0;
    [self.layer addSublayer:layer];
    self.curvedLayer = layer;
}

- (void)setFillColor:(UIColor *)fillColor {
    _fillColor = fillColor;

    self.curvedLayer.fillColor = fillColor.CGColor;
}

- (void)layoutSubviews {
    [super layoutSubviews];

    self.curvedLayer.path = [self pathOfArcWithinSize:self.bounds.size].CGPath;
}

- (UIBezierPath * _Nullable)pathOfArcWithinSize:(CGSize)size {
    if (size.width == 0 || size.height <= 0) return nil;

    CGFloat theta = M_PI - atan2(size.width / 2.0, size.height) * 2.0;
    CGFloat radius = self.bounds.size.height / (1.0 - cos(theta));

    UIBezierPath *path = [UIBezierPath bezierPath];
    [path moveToPoint:CGPointMake(0, 0)];
    [path addArcWithCenter:CGPointMake(size.width / 2.0, -radius + size.height) radius:radius startAngle:M_PI_2 + theta endAngle:M_PI_2 - theta clockwise:false];
    [path closePath];

    return path;
}

@end

That yields:

Or, if you'd rather use the drawRect approach rather than using CAShapeLayer:

//  CurvedView.m

#import "CurvedView.h"

@implementation CurvedView

- (instancetype)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame {
    self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
    if (self) {
        [self configureView];
    }
    return self;
}

- (instancetype _Nullable)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)coder {
    self = [super initWithCoder:coder];
    if (self) {
        [self configureView];
    }
    return self;
}

- (void)configureView {
    self.fillColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
}

- (void)setFillColor:(UIColor *)fillColor {
    _fillColor = fillColor;

    [self setNeedsDisplay];
}

- (void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect {
    UIBezierPath *path = [self pathOfArcWithinSize:self.bounds.size];
    [self.fillColor setFill];
    [path fill];
}

- (UIBezierPath * _Nullable)pathOfArcWithinSize:(CGSize)size {
    if (size.width == 0 || size.height <= 0) return nil;

    CGFloat theta = M_PI - atan2(size.width / 2.0, size.height) * 2.0;
    CGFloat radius = self.bounds.size.height / (1.0 - cos(theta));

    UIBezierPath *path = [UIBezierPath bezierPath];
    [path moveToPoint:CGPointMake(0, 0)];
    [path addArcWithCenter:CGPointMake(size.width / 2.0, -radius + size.height) radius:radius startAngle:M_PI_2 + theta endAngle:M_PI_2 - theta clockwise:false];
    [path closePath];

    return path;
}

@end

---

If you want the arc to occupy the bottom of the view, the path would look like:

- (UIBezierPath * _Nullable)pathOfArcWithinSize:(CGSize)size {
    if (size.width == 0 || size.height <= 0) return nil;

    CGFloat theta = M_PI - atan2(size.width / 2.0, size.height) * 2.0;
    CGFloat radius = self.bounds.size.height / (1.0 - cos(theta));

    UIBezierPath *path = [UIBezierPath bezierPath];
    [path moveToPoint:CGPointMake(0, size.height)];
    [path addArcWithCenter:CGPointMake(size.width / 2.0, radius) radius:radius startAngle:M_PI_2 * 3.0 + theta endAngle:M_PI_2 * 3.0 - theta clockwise:false];
    [path closePath];

    return path;
}

Essentially, that's the same theta and radius, but start in lower left corner, set the center to be size.width / 2.0, radius, and arc from M_PI_2 * 3.0 ± theta: